By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Mason Lytle homered twice for the first time this season and tied a season-high with four RBIs on Sunday as the UTSA Roadrunners moved into first in the American Athletic Conference by beating the Memphis Tigers, 7-5.
The Roadrunners won the finale of a three-game series in Memphis on the strength of hitting by Lytle and James Taussig and the pitching of Fischer Kingsbery, who worked four scoreless innings to close the game.
Lytle went two for four on the day. He homered to lead off the game in the top of the first and added a go-ahead two-run blast in the sixth. Taussig highlighted a three-hit day with a two-run double in the first inning and a solo home run in the seventh.
Kingsbery blanked the Tigers in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Allowing no runs on only two hits, he lowered his earned run average to 1.90. Kingsbery struck out five and walked two.
UTSA won two of three over Memphis for its fourth straight series victory in AAC play. Also, the victory pushed the Roadrunners (9-3) into sole possession of first place over the East Carolina Pirates (8-4) in the AAC standings. The Pirates lost 8-7 at home to the Charlotte 49ers.
For Memphis, Will Marcy went four for four, scored a run and produced an RBI. Duane Stuart hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to lift the Tigers into a 5-4 lead. Lytle answered in the top of the sixth with a two-run shot of his own, pushing the Roadrunners ahead 6-5.
Third baseman Ty Tilson made one of the better defensive plays of the day for UTSA in the bottom of the eighth when he took away a hit with a diving grab of a hard-hit ground ball. Tilson came up throwing to get the force at second base. Kingsbery finished the inning by fanning Shane Cox looking.
Series recap
Friday: UTSA wins, 9-6
Saturday: Memphis wins, 12-5
Sunday: UTSA wins, 7-5
UTSA wins series, two games to one
Records
UTSA 21-15, 9-3
Memphis 18-19, 6-6
Coming up
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at UTSA, 6 p.m.
Notable
The Roadrunners improved to 11-4 in their last 15 games. They also remained undefeated at 4-0 on Sundays in AAC play. In UTSA’s inaugural season of play in the conference, it owns series victories over East Carolina (2-1), Tulane (3-0), Charlotte (2-1) and Memphis (2-1).
UTSA won the Tulane and Memphis series on the road …
Ulises Quiroga (4-0) pitched the first five innings to earn the victory. He gave up five runs, all earned, on six hits. Quiroga walked three and struck out four. He yielded home runs to Pierre Seals in the second inning and to Stuart in the fifth. Kingsbery earned his second save of the season. For Memphis, reliever Logan Rushing (0-2) was tagged with the loss …
Mason Lytle had a season high-tying four RBIs, matching the four he had in a series closing victory at Tulane on March 30 …
Correction
An earlier version of this story stated incorrectly that the Roadrunners were tied for first with the East Carolina Pirates in the AAC. Sorry about the error. Here is a look at the top of the standings:
UTSA 9-3, 21-15
East Carolina 8-4, 27-8
South Florida 7-5, 21-15
Wichita State 7-5, 21-16